off site hotel w/transportation

[nymomof3]

can anyone reccomend a good offsite hotel that also has good transportation to and from the parks...i was quoted $134 a night at por but i don't know if thats alot and i can get offsite for alot cheaper in january...please any help would be appreciated..thanks

 

[Brian Noble]

No such hotel exists.

The DTD resorts come the closest, but aren't really much less expensive. Anything else will typically have scheduled transportation, only a few trips each way each day. Not at all convenient.

I am a hard-core off-siter, but even I would stay on site if I didn't have a car. It's that simple.

 

[FayeW]

No such hotel exists.

The DTD resorts come the closest, but aren't really much less expensive. Anything else will typically have scheduled transportation, only a few trips each way each day. Not at all convenient.

I am a hard-core off-siter, but even I would stay on site if I didn't have a car. It's that simple.

I don't think it's quite that cut and dried, Brian. There are several offsite hotels that provide shuttles and I guess we would have to understand the OP's definition of "good" to be able to give good advice.

I hear some of the DTD hotels (I think Grosvenor) has an excellent bus system.

Sheraton Safari has a shuttle that is shared with other offsite hotels. They have scheduled drop off and pick up times for each park. The times may not be exactly what you are looking for every single day, but with a little ingenuity, and taking advantage of the WDW busses and monorails to get you between parks you will probably find something you can live with. For example, if the pick up time from MK or Epcot doesn't suit you, you can always jump on the monorail to Poly, take the WDW bus to DTD and then it would be a quick and inexpensive cab ride back to the hotel.

It may not be perfect, but saving $50-$60 per night on hotel costs can pay for a lot of cab rides, if you needed to.

I am willing to be inconvenienced to save a buck...so take my advice with a grain of salt.

 

[Lisa BC]

I have to agree with Brian. The DTD transportation is the best of the offsites, but you might save $30 - $40 a night staying at a DTD property vrs POR, and a good chunk of that savings will get eaten up with the cost of airport transportation. Besides that, if there are 5 of you going, you'll be limited to which properties in you can stay. If you stay onsite, you can take ME, which is free.

We stayed off site several years ago at a "main gate" hotel, and the transportation was pretty bad. 1-2 trips in the morning, 1 trip mid day, and 2 trips at night that were shared with several other hotels. The night trips were a real nightmare, really really crowded buses. It took over an hour one night to return to our hotel from MK, and it was never under 45 minutes. It can't be more than 15 minute drive in a car.

If you don't want to stay onsite, I would really suggest you rent a car. You should be able to rent a car in Jan for around $150 a week, or about $22 per day. If you stay off site, you'll have to pay for airport shuttles or cab/town car fare anyway. Round trip shuttle service to the WDW area is $31 per person. Wow if you have 5 people in your party, that pays for your car rental car. If there are 5 of you, your really might want to consider renting a 2 bedroom condo. It'll cost you about the same as a 3* hotel, and you'll have much much more space, including a separate room for the kids 7 possibly a washer/dryer in your unit. Then you'll have the kitchen to use for meal prep as well.

Personally if I had to chose between fixing a few meals at home or using off site transport to Disney in order to stay within my budget, I'd absolutely choose to cook a few meals. I like to cook, and meal prep takes a lot less time out of my day vrs. the offsite shuttle...but that is just my opinion.

Here's how the numbers look to me:

3 star offsite hotel per night $70 (less if you are willing to go with Priceline) should be able to get a condo in Jan for about the same, maybe even less on skyauction.
car rental $22
gas $4
parking $10
off site cost per night: $106
You'll also have the advantage of eating off site at less expensive restaurants to save even more $$, and the option to do some shopping or other things you wouldn't do if you stayed on site.

Good luck choosing!

 

[nymomof3]

thank you all so much...i think im gunna go for por w/aaa discount not much of a difference between that and a nice offsite hotel...all your advice was great thats why i love these boards